It’s a Battle for the Soul of the NFL Brand

Vince Parry, President of Parry Branding Group

Brands like the NFL are the sum total of the values they embody in the minds of customers. But maintaining the integrity of those values can become a tricky balancing act when Franchise Brands—brands that have a core central set of values curated by management that must be faithfully executed by labor franchises—have an internal conflict that spills over and polarizes customers.  

For example, if the management of an American car company, say Ford, suddenly decides to have bonanza sales events to celebrate Ramadan, but the dealerships (labor franchises) balk at the idea as un-American (i.e. non-Christian), you have a brand identity crisis of the highest order.  Suddenly, American car buyers loyal to the Ford brand are thrust into a socio-political quandary that should have nothing to do with automobiles.

Such is the current case with NFL professional football as management and labor are battling for the soul of the NFL brand over the issue of what it means to be a patriotic American.

Does kneeling during the national anthem challenge the American value of nationalistic pride, or does it celebrate the American value of freedom to protest? And why must we make a choice?

Football aspires to be America’s sport because it harnesses the American values of virility, unity and winning at all costs (manifest destiny).  On the one hand, protesting makes the game truly American to players (labor) as such action is validated by first amendment protection.  On the other hand, protesting challenges the owners to either sustain virility and winning at all costs (keeping it American), but only by sacrificing the core American value of unity with the players.

Our disruptor-in-chief, President Trump, certainly re-lit the fuse on what was a fading issue by injecting his dogmatic pursuit of nationalism into the game.  He is setting the bar for what it means to be an American, and apparently this includes an unfettered brand of football that pledges ongoing allegiance, regardless of dissent, toward our logo…I mean flag.  He’s trying to impose his values of loyalty and unwavering patriotism on the NFL brand.

But Trump’s value system is based on a questionable premise: does the flag stand primarily for the executive function of our government—the military and police forces? Such a position disenfranchises the American citizenry in all its diversity and ignores the fact that our flag is the sum total of all American values, including the right to protest. Is Trump striving to make such patriotism unpatriotic?

 Torn between “unity” and Trump’s brand of patriotism, the owners (management) recently chose to retain the integrity of the NFL brand by opting for unity with the players, even if it chafes their emotional investment in Trump’s brand of patriotism, and their financial investment in keeping fans in the seats.  A logo—or in this case, a flag—should unite a community around a core set of brand values.  Let’s hope the NFL brand finds peace by embracing the pursuit of fairness in American justice.